Jordan Lake School of the Arts recognizes some students need private social skills and speech services. JLSA collaborates with an on-site service provider for pragmatic speech and social skills training. This provider is available to works with the students two weekdays to help facilitate and improve social communications and interactions. The service provider provides suggestions, training, and ongoing input to instructors at the school to maximize the effectiveness of speech interventions.

Speech therapy services are available on site for families who desire to have services at school. At JLSA we utilize therapeutic service providers that accept private and supplemental insurance. The school therefore is never in the position of offering reduced services or not recommending services due to financial motivation. Independent service providers also offer a perspective that advocates for the child, not the school, and eliminates any potential conflict of interest.

For Speech services, we work with one service provider that works on-site. Utilizing one provider helps to make communication cohesive, keep the number of people coming in and out of the school small, and allow the service provider to serve multiple children in one visit to the school. While we encourage families to utilize these services, Jordan Lake School of the Arts reserves the right to limit or change services permitted at the school as to not disrupt the program.

READING TUTORING & SUPPORTS

VISUALIZATION & VERBALIZATION ® by Linda Mood-Bell

(V/V®) program develops concept imagery—the ability to create an

imagined gestalt from language—as a basis for comprehension and higher order thinking. The development of concept imagery improves reading and listening comprehension, memory, oral vocabulary, critical thinking, and writing. Josie has been assigned a V & V book and is working during silent reading at school.

FAST FORWORD/SCI-LEARNING®

Adaptive Elementary Reading and Language Intervention Exercises via We believe that one struggling reader is one too many. Despite countless educational initiatives and programs, students continue to fall - and stay - behind. A different approach to intervention is needed for our most vulnerable learners to help them catch up, once and for all. Fast ForWord provides effective language and reading intervention for elementary age learners in grades K-5. Many learners’ struggle to read because their brains do not process the phonemes of English as efficiently as their peers. Fast ForWord was designed by neuroscientists to target the underlying causes of reading and learning struggle directly. Once the processing weaknesses are addressed, learners are able to develop reading and learning skills far more quickly. To catch up to their peers, struggling readers need 10-30 times the amount of reading practice. Fast ForWord delivers more practice opportunities than any other intervention program. Exercises are designed to adapt delivery to each learner, ensuring that each learner develops the critical cognitive skills and reading skills they need to become proficient readers. Fast ForWord produces fast, enduring learning gains because it addresses the root causes of reading struggle, provides the necessary reading practice, and reinforces newly learned skills with its digital guided reading tool. And best of all, learners that use Fast ForWord continue to make significant learning progress even after they complete the program.

SEE SPOT READ®

See Spot Read literacy program is an exciting reading skills development tool offered to all JLSA students. During a See Spot Read session, each JLSA student has the opportunity to interact with a service dog by sitting with them and reading to them aloud in front of a small group. See Spot Read works with children to develop and enhance reading skills, develop confidence in reading aloud, reduce anxiety to dogs, and share in a joyful group activity.

ONE ON ONE READING TUTORING

Our teachers utilize Augustine Literacy Project training in both Wilson & the Orton-Gillingham Method to teach students the mechanics of reading & written expression. Orton–Gillingham was the first teaching approach specifically designed to help struggling readers by explicitly teaching the connections between letters and sounds. Today—decades later—many reading programs include Orton–Gillingham ideas. Orton- Gillingham Method: The highly structured approach introduced the idea of breaking reading and spelling down into smaller skills involving letters and sounds, and then building on these skills over time. It also pioneered the “multisensory” approach to teaching reading, which is considered highly effective for teaching students with dyslexia. This means that instructors use sight, hearing, touch and movement to help students connect language with letters and words. Orton–Gillingham focuses on teaching kids to read at the word level.

While it can help develop reading comprehension, that is not the primary goal.

This approach uses multiple pathways to help kids learn. For example, students might learn the letter by seeing it, saying its name and sounding it out while writing it with their fingers in shaving cream. Orton–Gillingham also puts a strong emphasis on understanding the “how” and “why” behind reading. Students may explore why the letter s sounds one way in the word plays, and another way in the word snake. Once they know consistent rules and patterns, they’re better able to decode words on their own.

SUPPORT FROM A ONE ON ONE AIDE

Sometimes students need additional support to be able to remain regulated and focused throughout the day, or to assist with communication. In these cases a student will be admitted with the provision of an aide provided by the school, but at an additional expense to the parents. Parents receive a daily report as well as feedback at parent/teacher conferences in which the aide participates. Limited spaces are available for students who need this level of support.